Model Answers
Exam-focused worked answers for Irish law students, organised by qualification, subject and examination year.
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Choose the examination or stage of study you’re preparing for.
Model answers and exam-preparation resources for the Barrister-at-Law Entrance Examination. Law of Tort and Contract Law are available now; the remaining compulsory subjects are in development.
Tort Model Answer Vault and Contract Law Model Answer Vault: 30 model answers each across the 2020–2025 papers. Other subjects are in development and not yet available to buy.
Model answers organised around the Law Society of Ireland FE-1 examinations. Eleven answers to the questions that have been set more than once are available now, alongside a free analysis of every question on every paper from March 2024 to March 2026.
Eleven repeat-question model answers: €49 for the eight Property answers, €79 for all four subjects. The past-paper analysis is free.
Original LawShortcut practice questions with full model answers, written for undergraduate law examinations rather than taken from any past paper. Law of Tort is available now; further subjects are in development.
Undergraduate Tort: 36 practice questions with full model answers, €99 — or €169 with the Complete Law of Tort notes.
Model answers for the Law Society of Ireland Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test, for solicitors and barristers qualified elsewhere seeking admission in Ireland.
Not yet available to buy.
What a LawShortcut model answer gives you
LawShortcut model answers show how legal knowledge is converted into a structured, reasoned answer — from identifying the issues through stating the relevant law, applying it and reaching a supported conclusion.
- Clear issue spotting and answer structure.
- Relevant law and authorities applied to the facts.
- Reasoned conclusions rather than memorised templates.
- Where an answer is based on a published past examination paper, a link to the official source is provided.
How long should your answer actually be?
A LawShortcut model answer is a reference document, not a transcript of an exam script. It is deliberately fuller than anything you could write under time, and it is worth knowing that before you read one.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. Most law examinations allow roughly 45 minutes a question, and sustained handwriting under pressure runs at 20 to 30 words a minute. That is about 1,000 to 1,300 words on the page — and a good deal of that time goes on reading and planning rather than writing. Our answers run well beyond that, because they also show you the authorities you did not reach for, the argument you could have made instead, and the points where the law is genuinely unsettled.
So read them in two passes. First for the structure and the issues — that is what you reproduce under exam conditions. Then for the depth, which is what lets you write the shorter version with confidence and handle a question you have not seen before.
What earns marks in a law examination is consistent year on year:
- Every issue identified, including the one that is not obvious.
- What a case decides, not merely its name.
- The law applied to these facts, rather than a general essay on the topic.
- A reasoned conclusion that says plainly where the answer is uncertain.
And what earns nothing: reciting the facts back at the start, and making the same point twice.